You Ran A Facebook Lead Ad…Now What?

Congratulations! Your Facebook Lead Ad Campaign has concluded and the Facebook reporting statistics looks promising. High reach in your desired target audience and a low cost per lead. So…now what do you do? Start over with more of the same? Try something different? Or just take a nap? What you do after running a Facebook Lead Ad Campaign may actually be more important than the ad itself. It takes work to turn these leads into customers! Here are a few things you need to do to get started on your Facebook Lead follow-up.

Export Your Leads

Right now, the users who clicked on your Facbook Lead Ad are nothing more than email addresses sitting in a database. Facebook’s database, to be exact. They are not customers, and could hardly be called potential customers. (Not yet, anyway.) How do you get them there? The first step is to export those valuable email addresses you worked so hard to get. There are two simple ways to do this: through Facebook Ads Manager, or through the Admin Tools of your Facebook Page itself. Keep in mind that Facebook only keeps leads for 90 days, so export often. (Hopefully much more frequently than that!)

Hook Up CRM System

If you’re gathering a lot of leads, it may be wise to look into a CRM system that can hook into Facebook directly and automatically import leads. Then you never have to worry about losing a lead, or managing a lot of list uploads to your email system.

Send Initial Email

Once your Facebook Leads have opted in, you can start emailing them! After all, isn’t this what your Facebook Lead Ad Campaign was all about? Your initial email should be short and to the point. It helps to reference the Facebook Lead Ad they saw, either in tone or visual style. You may want to repeat key pieces of text. But avoid cheesy copy that says “since you found us on Facebook.” This initial email should come within 48 hours (and ideally even sooner) from when they opted in, so it’s unlikely they forgot how you got their email yet.

Deliver On Offer

The urgency of the first email is a great case for connecting your CRM directly to Facebook, but you can certainly manage without it. If your initial email is more of a “welcome to the club” send, then your next communication needs to give your Facebook Leads the offer you promised, whether it’s free shipping or a complimentary e-book. Your initial email can certainly combine these two messages, but if it’s easier to bulk offer emails into batches you can wait a few more days (but not too long!) to send the promised goods. This will vary by industry best practice and the tone of your Facebook Lead Ad; some users will expect the offer almost instantly while others are content to wait a few days.

Create Lead Nurturing Plan

The initial email and subsequent (or included) offer messaging is the first step in your lead nurturing plan. Even if these Facebook Leads were warm leads, acquired through a thoughtful funnel campaign, they are still nearly unknown to you, and you to them. They are simply leads. The goal of your lead nurturing plan is to continue to move them through the funnel and turn them into converting customers. Best practices will vary based on your industry and current customer behavior, but aim to talk to them at least twice a month. Once you are out of the initial email stage, batching your list becomes much easier. But keep in mind where these leads are in the life cycle; you may benefit from different messaging for those who have not yet converted vs. first purchasers vs. repeat customers.

Test and Repeat

Once you’ve optimized your Facebook Lead Ad Campaign, new prospects will be entering the funnel at all times. You’ll need to maintain segmented email lists to keep track of who came in when, and whether they’ve converted to a customer yet. Continually fine-tune your campaigns for the lowest cost per lead, and test everything.